Week 1 Paleo - hack my food diary! :D

I just finished my first week of Paleo - I'm feeling GREAT, my personal trainer is beyond impressed with my changes and I'm really enjoying it. As it was my first week I'm still 'finding my feet' so below is my food diary... if you spot any common newbie mistakes or room for improvement please let me know! I'd love for this coming week to be spot on :)

As an aside - I had to battle my housemates for the rights to my leftover curry, they both said it was about the best they had ever had! Definitely one to make again, I'll post the recipe on here next time I make it.

All right now I'm jealous because you have duck fat! I hope you've tried roasting vegetables in it, if not you must do this right away, roasting anything in duck fat pretty much defines the term "mouthgasm" ;)

From what I've read a lot of paleo people seem anti dairy - so I thought I would cut out dairy for a few weeks just to see what the fuss is about :) I've been cooking with extra virgin olive oil and duck fat.
I did buy some steak and bacon for this week though! I do love a pan fried fillet now and then. Thanks for the feedback :)

Cheers! I guess I'm still trying to get my head around 'eat more fat'. Even with the light coconut milk I found the curry to be really rich.
My smoothies are made with 1 banana or 1 cup of berries. I do eat a bit of fruit but I'm also working out 4-6 times a week :)

4
Answers

Why all the dried fruit, nuts, smoothies, almond milk, "skinless sausage", skinless chicken...?
Eat some real animal food. Where's the red meat? I guess you have some sausage and lean beef bolognese in there, but...
I mean, don't eat huge amounts of steak dripping with butter, but I think one of the best parts of paleo is eating red meat meat, butter, cheese (if you like) and so on, instead of skinless chicken and fruit and vegetables all the time.

All right now I'm jealous because you have duck fat! I hope you've tried roasting vegetables in it, if not you must do this right away, roasting anything in duck fat pretty much defines the term "mouthgasm" ;)

From what I've read a lot of paleo people seem anti dairy - so I thought I would cut out dairy for a few weeks just to see what the fuss is about :) I've been cooking with extra virgin olive oil and duck fat.
I did buy some steak and bacon for this week though! I do love a pan fried fillet now and then. Thanks for the feedback :)

Looks like you're doing pretty well and you're certainly of to a good start.

Some suggestions:-

It looks like you're somewhat fat phobic, which is pretty normal if you've followed the usual low fat dogma of conventional wisdom - I know it took me some time to increase the amount of fat I was eating after being low fat for such a long time.

If your meat is grass / pastured fed don't be afraid of the fat, get stuck in - no need to purchase lean meat. However if you're consuming CAFO meat then going for low fat variants isn't such a bad idea, due to there poor(er) omega 3/6 fatty acid ratio. Ideally we want our omega 3/6 ratio somewhere between 1:1 - 1:4; a SAD can be anywhere from 1:10 - 1:20+. If you are eating CAFO meat try and find some local suppliers of pastured meat, it's so much better in every way.

A splash of almond milk in your coffee once a day probably isn't a big deal but be wary on over doing the almond milk, IMHO it isn't an ideal milk replacement as it is high in omega 6 and phytic acid. Phytic acid is one of the reasons we want to avoid grains, it binds unbelievably well to metals, such as calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, etc, which stops your gut from absorbing them (bad). We can put up with a bit of phytic acid, particularly when our diet is nutrient dense and we're in good health, but it's easy to over do it, particularly with nuts and products made from nuts.

Try and get some fatty fish (tuna, salmon, sardines, etc) about twice a week. They're an excellent source of omega 3 - and if you get that dialed in you should be able to drop the fish oil pills.

Fat and protein, IMHO, makes the ultimate breakfast - it can keep me going all day without the need for snacking. You're hitting this somewhat on the days you eat eggs. Might be something worth playing around with a bit more to see how you do. (i.e. Try a steak and eggs for breakfast, yum!)

Eat liver, also about twice a week, around 100g a serve. It is a true super food.

Read up on and learn how to make bone broth. It contains many trace minerals and also gelatin and collagen, which are hard to get anywhere else in the diet and are awesome for our joints, connective tissue and guts linings. I drink a cup pretty much everyday.

2 glasses of red is not a party! Though, good choice on the alcohol front all the same. :)

Cheers! I guess I'm still trying to get my head around 'eat more fat'. Even with the light coconut milk I found the curry to be really rich.
My smoothies are made with 1 banana or 1 cup of berries. I do eat a bit of fruit but I'm also working out 4-6 times a week :)